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| Gensler turns factory building into model of green school design  St. Philip's Academy celebrates the completion of their new school campus—the first LEED-designed building in Newark. Designed by Gensler from a 1920's factory building at 342 Central Avenue, St. Philip's Academy is an independent K-8 school founded in 1988 to serve underserved city youth. StructureTone was contractor for the project. The new school has been designed as a tool to teach paths of healthy living and learning, a hallmark of the institution's philosophy, and involved a complete redesign of the existing 55,000 square feet as well as design of a new 14,000-square-foot addition.Formerly located in an historic bank building in downtown Newark, also designed by Gensler, the academy chose the 1920 brick and masonry building north of the Central Ward neighborhood, near the site of the 1967 race riots, as part of its goal to create an environmentally-sensitive building and learning environment, but also to play a role in revitalizing the neighborhood. Designed to meet a LEED Silver 2.1 rating, St. Philip's will be Newark's first LEED-certified structure and one of only two certified independent schools in New Jersey. Developed by the US Green Building Council, LEED is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Construction News :: home page |